Posted by Matt on February 10, 2002 at 20:01:27:
I want to thank everyone for the help they have gave me on building a MAME cabinet, without others my controls and electronic part would have been impossible, I am a 16 year cabinet maker, and have co-owned a cabinet shop since '89. I have seen alot of great cabinets that people have made and also no some cost saving as well as easier methods on general cabinet making. So I was going to list some and if anyone has any questions e-mail me or post'em.
1.) Ever thought of melamine?? Melamine is low pressure laminate already bonded to industrial board (heavy weight particle board) Its available in white, almond and yes even black, with both sides already laminated or only one side. This is what most store fixtures are made of, and I can bet most arcade cabinets where mostly made of this, why would they add the extra labor and cost to thousands of arcade cabinets?? Almost everyone out there when they see this stuff assumes its laminate, just thinner and not quite as tough as your kitchen counter. Its available in custom colors as well (if enoughs ordered) as well as standard 1/4", 1/2" & 3/4" without special order, the best part is expect to pay retail for 3/4" around $30 per sheet, generally 1 sided and 2 sided cost about the same!!
2.) Patterns, Patterns & more Patterns, don't do your layout on your finished sheets!! Layout and cutout everything on cheap ol' particle board (prefer industrial board much denser, it measures 49" x 97" to tell the diffrence) and cutout with the best tool you can, usually a router with a straight bit and a fence screwed to the sheet, or even a jig saw and sand make the pattern perfect, if you miss a cut or chip it use bondo or filler or glue and reglue it your particle board shouldn't cost more than $15 per 1/2 sheet and is money well spent to save the melamine or mdf or other substrate to be laminated. Fasten your pattern to your finished sheet by clamping it and use a router with a straight flush cut bit (usually a 1/2" straight bit with ball bearing guide) get carbide, mdf or p-board will EAT up your other bit and it won't make it around one sheet. Expect to pay less than $15 for that bit (try Grizzly Industrial for good inexpensive bits)) or cheaper, the same bit can trim laminate if its being used. The router bit will follow the edge of the pattern and cut the finished board smoothly and at a straight 90 degrees (something your jigsaw can't do well) besides not chipping since its cutting rotary style. Cut your finished panel 1/4" oversize so the bit and router don't have to work as hard, with a jig saw or any type of saw, it will chip but as long as it doesn't go past the 1/4" your fine (finer tooth blades chip less) If there is chips and your edge isn't at 90 degrees it will make your tee-mould or edge look very bad. Besides a pattern makes your sides exactly the same.
3.) If you are still going to laminate, use the best glue you can, we spray it, most will have to brush it, forget the non flammable variety or water base (nightmare) and get some good ole solvent base (highly flammable) and brush it on the substrate (panel) and the back of the laminate and let it dry, to wear your hair on your arm will not stick to it, it will feel dry, not wet, nd then it will stick and stick very good, use dowells or cardboard to seperate the lam and board and once positioned slide out the dowells or the cardboard and push it down with your hand and lightly tap it with a block of wood under a hammer. Use your same flush cut bit to trim the laminate to size of the panel, the bearing will follow the board while trimming away the laminate. Don't worry about glue color (available in clear and red as thats only a concern on light laminate and wear you use a lam edge. Expect to pay about 25 per gallon of more for good glue, go buy a cabinet shop and have them order it for you, don't trust cheap glue, many de-laminate 1-2 years later (sounds like fun to fix huh) use the flammable OUTSIDE or out of risk of flame, its bad stuff, the worse the smell the better the stick, one brand name I have used that won't work well is Macklanburg-Duncan its a mess waiting to happen, Con-Bond or any Columbia adhesive will hold great, 3-M spray on is emergency repair stuff but can work if you have a bunch of extra money to use.
4.)Tee-Mould is the last thing applied to a panel, even sometimes after the fixtures done. Use a slotting cutter of the correct width for your tee-mould and put in your router and once again the bearing will follow your panel and cut the slot (test on scrap!!!) Don't cut until you have your tee-mould or it could be a pain! Pound in your tee-mould with a mallet. If your tee-mould is too wide (thats not uncommon) let it overhang to the side easiest to cut off (probably outside), grease your laminate or melamine with vegetable shortning and get a utility knife blade and lay it flat and trim it off, there are commericial made trimmers we use, but they are costly sometimes (espeially to do curves) go slow and take your time and try and not gouge the laminate or melamine. If you wobble on your slotting cut with the router, you can cut a small sliver of wood and glue it in the slot and re run the slot and maybe a dap of glue on the tounge of the tee-mould, it won't stick to the tee-mould but will the wood and wedges it in that way.
5.) If using MDF sanding the edge and painting it with oil based enamel after sealing with alkyd primer and sanding (Sherwin Williams) will produce an nice edge to rival tee-moulding, just sand before you primer.
6.) Fastening panels.. try KD fittings, those are knock down fittings that are pretting strong, all fasten diffrent ways but are sutable to hold melamine panels (or lam) without be ugly and visible, try Woodworkers Supply or The Wood Store for a wide assortment and diffrent configurations. If you laminate you can screw the cab together and put the laminate on top the screw heads and cover them up as well, A product called Roo-Glue will bond to laminate and melamine as well as polyurethane glue such as Gorilla or Excell or Titebond brand urethane, any regular wood glue (yellow or white regardless of waterproof) simply is a waste as it won't bond to the slick surface.
7.) A easy was to hold a monitor against the face of a monitor board is to use 4 boards (like 1x2s) and drill from one side and put in tee-nuts (threaded inserts that are tee-shaped) and then screw these boards to the back of the monitor board so your pulling through on the tee-nuts and put in threaded hook eyes in the tee-nuts (I used 1/4" threaded) put the boards against the edges of the monitor so it no longer can slide sideways or up and down, making a square on the backside of the monitor board that fits snuggly. Then use rubber straps or bungy cords to loop around the monitor to form a "H" across the back, hooking them in the screw eyes, I had a monitor mounted this way and my cabinet fell over in the back of the truck, no effect on the monitor! And you can take the monitor out without tools in about 30 seconds without nasty screw holes or such in the monitor.
If anyone needs any help please drop me a line and maybe I can save some frustration and money like everyone did me on the control part!!